Search

This text offers descriptions and analyses of some of the different ways in which schools and other educational institutions have started to establish new collaborative relationships in today's competitive educational marketplace. Using case studies, the book describes examples of such collaborative structures.; Educational consortia have been established as a vehicle for professional and curriculum development, as a source of mutual support and as a condition of mutual survival. As the "LEA monopolies" have been forced to shed many of their traditional functions or schools have opted out, schools have found it necessary to re-create parts of their collaborative structures out of sheer self- Interest.; For Some Educators Who Continue To Be Attached To Notions Of "an educational service" and professional collegiality in the provision of such a service, inter-institutional collaboration becomes seen as something to be valued independently of the instrumental benefits which it provides. For this variety of reasons, consortium working and collaborative structures seem set to develop in spite of, or as a necessary antodote to, educational markets. Understanding the role and operation of such structures is a necessity for educational managers in all parts of the educational service.

Those who keep a finger on the pulse of British democracy often announce that the patient is in a critical state. In the 1970s, the diagnosis most often came from the right, with dire warnings of the debilitating effects of social democracy. Since the 1979 election, it is those on the left who are pessimistic, pointing to an insidious authoritarianism that threatens democratic values. Therefore, a book which maintains that a major turning point in British politics has been reached is not, in itself, particularly rare. What sets British Democracy at the Crossroads (originally published in 1985) apart, however, is the breadth and depth of its analysis. It breaks the mould of conventional political science by marrying a study of voting in the 1983 election (using a specially commissioned survey) with a detailed presentation of the context in which the election took place, including analyses of the dynamics of political parties, of the role of the news media before and during the campaign, and other important issues. This markedly different approach to the subject allows the book to serve two valuable functions. It provides a clear and concise introduction to the various methods of electoral analysis, which will be welcomed in the classroom and lecture theatre. Also, by drawing on modern political theory, it develops a distinctive radical perspective on the interconnected themes of party competition and electoral behaviour, contesting many of the assumptions that underlie the orthodox accounts of electoral dealignment. This is a challenging and stimulating book that no one with an interest in the future of democracy in Britain can afford to ignore.